Man left in 'filthy' room in Walsall Manor Hospital
A woman from the West Midlands says she was ‘scared to death’ that her severely ill husband might catch an infection when he was put in a ‘filthy’ makeshift hospital cubicle, after collapsing with flu.
Sara Cole’s husband Phil has cancer and had been discharged from Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE) after having been diagnosed with flu.
“That night he had the shakes and was really unwell. I went to get him a drink in the morning and he collapsed. That’s when I called our emergency number and they said to call 999. So that’s when the ambulance service came into the picture.
“It was New Year’s Eve and when I phoned 999 they said straight away ‘it’s going to take hours’. Obviously, I was very concerned as his temperature was still really high, he was just sleeping the whole time.”
At this point Sara then contacted a good friend of hers, a paramedic, who came and assessed Phil and passed that assessment on to the emergency team
“They said you need to get to the QE as an emergency. The QE apparently had a queue of nine ambulances New Year’s Eve afternoon, but he had to go because that’s where all his treatment has happened for his cancer.”
When the ambulance did eventually arrive they were heading for the Birmingham Hospital, however halfway there they were told to turn around and go to Walsall Manor Hospital, where they waited for two hours in the car park because there wasn’t a bed.
Two hours later they found what they called the ‘plaster room’ in the emergency department to isolate Phil to protect him as he had a weakened immune system from his cancer and treatment.
“We went into the plaster room. It was filthy. There was an old bed in there that the paramedics themselves had to make up. The bed had blood stains on the side of it, and drips.
“The sink was full of used bits and bobs, the floor was filthy with stains and tissue paper from previous patients.
“I was really worried then because he’s so vulnerable that he was at risk of picking something else up as well as the flu.
She said the staff were not to blame and did everything they could, but, she says, “there simply were not enough of them.”
A Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust spokesperson said:
‘We apologise to Mr Cole and his wife that they found the room in this condition.
‘Unfortunately, at very busy times, such as we are currently experiencing, things will occasionally be overlooked.
‘We would encourage people to alert us at the time they spot any issues so we can look to address them in a timely way.’